Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Integrating the Inner City
WORK NOTES: with Mark L. Joseph
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://ssascholars.uchicago.edu/r-chaskin/biocv * https://www.ssa.uchicago.edu/robert-chaskin * http://www.chapinhall.org/experts/faculty-partners/robert-chaskin
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:University of Chicago, A.M., Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Sociologist, educator, writer, and editor. University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, professor and deputy dean for strategic initiatives and UNESCO chair for inclusive urbanism at the School of Social Service Administration, also affiliated scholar at Chapin Hall since 1990. National University of Ireland, Galway, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow, 2017.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Robert J. Chaskin studied anthropology as an undergraduate and went on to receive his doctorate in sociology. His primary research interests include community organizing and development, community social organization, comprehensive community initiatives, youth development, associations and nonprofits, philanthropy and social change, social housing policy, knowledge utilization and evaluation, and cross-national research. Chaskin has written extensively on the topics of neighborhood intervention, community capacity building, and the dynamics of participatory planning and neighborhood governance.
Chaskin is coauthor with Mark L. Joseph of Integrating the Inner City: The Promise and Perils of Mixed-Income Public Housing Transformation. The book draws from five years of research and in-depth interviews conducted by Chaskin and Joseph concerning public housing reform in Chicago, Illinois. Chaskin and Joseph especially focused on three mixed-income developments built in the Chicago area where public housing developments once stood.
The Chicago Plan for Transformation began in 2000 and is the largest-scale mixed-income public -housing redevelopment project in the United States. The plan is a response to the concentration of urban poverty and the numerous deficiencies associated with public housing. The approach is to replace the numerous failing public-housing facilities in Chicago with mixed-income, integrated communities. The hope is that lower-income residents of these communities will be better integrated into the wider social and economic fabric of the city, thus remaking the very nature of Chicago’s inner city.
In their book, the authors begin by examining the social dynamics of such communities and how they will affect the plan’s ultimate goals. This examination draws largely from interviews conducted with people living in three mixed-income communities. “These conversations provide an introduction to residents’ experiences in these communities and their outlook on this bold social experiment to end the segregation of the poor in public housing,” Chaskin and Joseph write in the book’s prologue.
The authors go on to examine the pros and cons of the mixed-income idea, noting that some have argued that it is less about regeneration and more about an effort to design communities that conform to the tastes of the middle class. Chaskin and Joseph address topics such as the design and financing of such projects and how the developments are eventually populated to reflect a mixed-income community. They also examine social issues associated with intermixing people of different socioeconomic backgrounds.
Chaskin and Joseph conclude that the mixed-income communities have led to physical improvements in housing but have yet to produce a change in the socioeconomic standing of their poorer residents. The authors go on to offer suggestions about how to better bring about social integration that results in improving the chances for social mobility. “This volume makes an outstanding contribution to public housing policy, community development, and urban studies,” wrote Choice contributor D.A. Chekki.
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Chaskin, Robert J., and Mark L. Joseph, ntegrating the Inner City: The Promise and Perils of Mixed-Income Public Housing Transformation, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2015.
PERIODICALS
Choice, June, 2016, D.A. Chekki, review of Integrating the Inner City: The Promise and Perils of Mixed-Income Public Housing Transformation, p. 1548.
ONLINE
Chapin Hall at University of Chicago Web site, http://www.chapinhall.org/ (May 28, 2017), author profile.
University of Chicago Web site, https://ssa.uchicago.edu/ (May 28, 2017), author profile.
Research & Biography
Professor Robert J. Chaskin is on academic research leave and will be abroad through September, 2017 as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the National University of Ireland, Galway.
Robert J. Chaskin is Professor and Deputy Dean for Strategic Initiatives and holds the UNESCO Chair for Inclusive Urbanism at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. His research interests include community organizing and development, community social organization, comprehensive community initiatives, youth development, associations and nonprofits, philanthropy and social change, social housing policy, knowledge utilization and evaluation, and cross-national research. In addition to his role at SSA, Professor Chaskin has worked with Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago since 1990 where he is currently an Affiliated Scholar. At SSA, Professor Chaskin teaches courses on social policy, community development, and program implementation and on theories and strategies of community change.
Professor Chaskin's work focuses on the conceptual foundations and principal strategies of contemporary community intervention in the context of urban poverty. He has written widely on the topics of neighborhood intervention, community capacity building, and the dynamics of participatory planning and neighborhood governance. His research focuses on social policy and community practice in two principal ways: through grounded investigations of particular interventions and through synthetic, cross-intervention analyses. To date, Professor Chaskin's work has evolved along three major lines. The first is concerned with theories of community and social policy responses to urban poverty, the second focuses strategies of community change with a particular focus on participatory planning and democratic governance at the neighborhood level, and the third is concerned with the application of knowledge to inform community practice and policy.
Among other projects, he is completing work on a multi-year, multi-site study of public housing reform in Chicago, with a particular focus on the emerging mixed-income developments being built in several Chicago neighborhoods on the footprint of former public housing developments, as well as a study of the New Communities Program, a community development effort underway in 16 Chicago neighborhoods. His latest book, Integrating the Inner City: The Promise and Perils of Mixed-Income Public Housing Transformation (with Mark Joseph), is available from the University of Chicago Press. Most recently, he is conducting research on the civic and political engagement of marginalized urban youth in Belfast, Dublin, and London with support from a Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowship from the European Commission, and is preparing to embark on a research project focused on slum clearance and social housing policy in Mumbai.
Professor Chaskin received his A.M. in Anthropology and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago.
Robert Chaskin
Title:
Professor; Deputy Dean for Strategic Initiatives; Faculty Partner, Chapin Hall, Principal Investigator, Mixed-Income Development Study
Department:
School of Social Service Administration
Department or Research Project:
Chapin Hall
Dean's Office
International Programming
Mixed-Income Development Study
Office Location:
E-10
Phone:
773.702.1707; 773.256.5120
Email:
Contact person by email
Robert Chaskin
Associate Professor and Deputy Dean
School of Social Service Administration
University of Chicago
rjc3@uchicago.edu
Robert Chaskin is an associate professor and deputy dean for strategic initiatives at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and an affiliated scholar at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. His research has explored the conceptual foundations and principal strategies of contemporary community intervention; issues of participation, planning, and neighborhood governance; comprehensive community initiatives and other efforts to promote community capacity in urban neighborhoods; the role of philanthropy in promoting community change; and approaches to knowledge utilization and the challenges of learning from complex community initiatives.
Among other projects, he is currently principal investigator of a research project focused on the creation of mixed-income developments on the footprint of former public housing complexes in Chicago, and is part of the evaluation team (with MDRC) for the New Community Program, a comprehensive community initiative being implemented in 14 communities in Chicago.
Dr. Chaskin holds a master’s degree in anthropology and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago.
Research and Presentations by Robert Chaskin
Chaskin, Robert J.: Integrating the inner city: the promise and perils of mixed-income public housing transformation
D.A. Chekki
53.10 (June 2016): p1548.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Chaskin, Robert J. Integrating the inner city: the promise and perils of mixed-income public housing transformation, by Robert J. Chaskin and Mark L. Joseph. Chicago, 2015. 347p bibl index afp ISBN 9780226164397 doth, $40.00; ISBN 9780226303901 ebook, contact publisher for price
53-4605
HT177
2015-14463 CIP
Chaskin (social services administration, Univ. of Chicago) and Joseph (social sciences, Case Western Univ.) examine Chicago's Plan for Transformation, the country's largest attempt at mixed-income public housing reform. The goal of the plan is to reduce poverty and racial segregation of economically disadvantaged neighborhoods through relocation and community development. Basing their book on extensive fieldwork, in-depth interviews, and document analysis, the authors present a detailed empirical analysis within the context of theories related to neighborhoods and social capital. They demonstrate the interplay of race, class, and the dynamics of poverty within a framework of neoliberalism. The study highlights the impact of public housing reform policy on three mixed-income communities that replaced public housing complexes. Chaskin and Joseph explore the nature of social interaction and relationships among residents having different income and racial/ethnic backgrounds, observe tensions between integration and exclusion and poverty and development, argue that these mixed-income communities reproduce marginality and alienation, and conclude that a market-driven approach to public housing reform has led to physical improvements but has not brought major socioeconomic advantages to mixed-income communities. The authors suggest several actions that may contribute to better social integration, social mobility, and communities that are more inclusive. This volume makes an outstanding contribution to public housing policy, community development, and urban studies. Summing Up: *** Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.--D. A. Chekki, University of Winnipeg
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Chekki, D.A. "Chaskin, Robert J.: Integrating the inner city: the promise and perils of mixed-income public housing transformation." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, June 2016, p. 1548. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA454943016&it=r&asid=d8584173468281caa5fbafc6952fd245. Accessed 8 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A454943016